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3g Reception booster

C

cj10jeeper

Lifer
Lichfield, England
Well I can't even think of a tenuous link to the Zed other than connecting it with bluetooth in the Zed ... :roll:

OK so I'm about to change phones and would like an O2 iphone 3G this time instead of vodafone Blackberry, but reception from O2 is poor in my home office, compared to vodafone.
Not interested in unlocking the phone, etc. to use another carrier.

Vodafone on the on 3g now offer a signal booster at around £5 per month, (Vodafone Access Gateway - which requires a broadband connection so I assume it's using that to get signal) but o2 nothing similar.

Searching on the internet there re a myriad of signal boosters from a few £'s to several hundred £'s from the presumably crap on ebay that fits inside the phone to pro roof aerial set ups.

Question is has anyone used anything of this type? do they work? Any suggestions on a make, vendor, type, etc.
 
The question is a little confusing, as it implies you wish to boost the 3G (data) signal, whereas you mean the normal signal on the iPhone 3G.

The reason I make the differentiation is rather than boost the signal for the purpose of data, you would be better using the wi-fi in your house. The official signal boosters work really well, I have used them in the states. Often the carrier will give them for free (with a little begging) but like you said, O2 do not do them.

I am not sure a 3rd party signal booster would work well (if at all) without getting some pretty expensive kit. I will ask around and see if anyone has anything to recommend.
 
Yes - thtough my ignorance I probably did not phrase the question well.

On O2 the reception is so poor that I cannot make and receive phone calls properly, so making the phone at home somewhat useless. vodafone offer the booster but only compatible with 3g phones so I'm after something that would allow me to make and receive phone calls better on a latest gen iphone.

Internet, data, etc. at home really does not matter as I've the usual wireless house set up
 
Check out this: Shows O2 has the worst 3G and presumably as bad GPRS connection for all the networks...

My recommendation would be Orange/T-Mobile - They are going through a merger which will consolidate both networks eventually. If you really want an Iphone (which are ok i suppose!) you could try to unlock one like i did? Do not use an 'unlock sim' though!!
 
3g is abit patchy with 02, if your in/near a large urban area your ok. to be fair gprs isnt that bad, i think ive got used to it as we have no 3g here. i too have poor o2 signal in my works building, but same goes for vodafone. orange and t-mob seem to be the best for coverage, i was previously with t mobile and was a very happy customer but i wanted a payg iphone 3gs so now on o2. i happily trade occasional no signal for not having to pay £20 a month, not even gone through £10 credit since launch! but then i browse the net / recieve calls rather than make any.
 
Just for info, you can switch the device to 2g to get stronger signal for phone calls. As you mention you are not interested in the data element whilst at home you will find that on 2g the reception (and the battery life) is a lot longer.

I switched my son's Google phone to 2g as well as he does not have a data contract, and the battery life became 10 fold and the signal strength for phone calls increased hugely as well.

Normal wifi connections at home means that all facilities of the phone at home work fine.
 
Interesting that 2g increases battery life, better reception, etc. My experience before was with a 2g O2 and it was crap so let's assume it still is as there have been no network updates in my area. I'm not really after 3g per se. It just comes with the latest iphone so could no doubt benefit from it while travelling.

I'm not into unlocking the phone, so am back to my central question of finding if there is any reasonable priced booster solution that would give me decent home reception?

If not life is easy to just go to vodafone and swap to the next Blackberry which suits my pure business and telecom needs just fine, if a bit boring.
 
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